By North Country Gazette

CLIFTON PARK—State Police in Clifton Park are currently investigating three separate cases of “Grandparent Scam” and would like to remind the public of this often used scam.

These common scams involves unknown individuals calling older or elderly people and then pretend to be a relative of the victim, usually a grandson or granddaughter. The caller starts out the call by stating “Grandma?” or “Grandpa?” which in turn usually elicits a response from the victim citing the name of a grandson or granddaughter. The unknown caller then feeds from this info and pretends to be that relative while reporting that he or she has been involved in some sort of criminal issue or a motor vehicle accident and requests money be sent to help the situation in the form of bail money or repairs to a car.

The money is usually wired to the scammer outside the United States and the “grandchild” requests that the victims not contact his or her parents and report the situation so as to not be in trouble or avoid embarrassment. Incidents of this nature usually result in the victim losing thousands of dollars.

The State Police advocate that anyone who receives such a call should ask questions that an imposter would not be able to answer correctly such as the date of their mother’s birthday or the city they were born in and also to call the family of the person who is allegedly seeking assistance to check on the legitimacy of the request. Any call should also be reported to officials immediately.

The three recent local incidents in southern Saratoga County all involved money being sent to the Cayman Islands for bail using the same out of country phone number. The dollar amounts requested totaled over $15,700 and were broken up into several transaction requests.

State Police ask that anyone with information or who has also experienced something similar to contact the Bureau of Criminal Investigation in Clifton Park at 518-383-8583 or the 24 hour line at 518-783-3211.   5-29-13

For more on this story go to:

http://www.northcountrygazette.org/2013/05/29/grandparent_scam-2/